Meet your MEPs’ breakfast meetings in Wales

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16/11/2015

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“What does an MEP do?” “Is Wales dependent on the EU budget?” “Why is Britain disenchanted with the EU politics?” Those were only some of the questions the MEPs had to answer during the breakfast meetings organised by the UK European Parliament Information Office in Cardiff. With BBC Wales journalist Jamie Owen as moderator, the series of events aims at providing a meeting point between the public and Welsh MEPs.

The European Parliament Information Office in the United Kingdom has organised a series of small breakfast meetings to give Welsh citizens the opportunity to engage with the MEPs who represent them in the European Parliament. Lively debates on the relationship between Wales and the EU together with thorough discussions about the upcoming referendum on the UK’s membership of the EU have characterised all the gatherings.

The impact of EU funding on Wales was a prominent topic discussed at all of the events so far. "What we are doing in Wales is identify areas such as ‘research and innovation’ and we do our best to make sure that Welsh counties use the EU funds to run projects related to these areas" - said one of the MEPs at the recent meeting. Moderator Jamie Owen is also keen to introduce another key issue - the question of austerity measures applied across the Member states and the EU budget. “Certainly the EU needs to be reformed,” said another Member of the European Parliament.

Next stop for the breakfast briefings is Northern Ireland with MEPs Martina Anderson and Diane Dodds, which will be a great occasion to further explore the current EU issues and their impact on UK regions.

For more information on the upcoming "Meet your MEP" events visit the European Parliament in the UK website.